Aviator
Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo
non-stop around the world without refueling when he
landed the Global Flyer experimental plane in Salina,
Kansas Thursday. Thousands
of spectators at the Salina airport cheered as Steve
Fossett emerged from the cramped cockpit of the Global
Flyer and waved.

Steve
& Sir Richard celebrate at Salina airport Kansas

Moments
later, he was greeted by Sir Richard Branson, chairman
of Virgin Atlantic Airways, which had sponsored the
flight. "He is the first person in the world to go
around it solo" said Mr. Branson.

Then
Mr. Fossett addressed the crowd and those listening to
live broadcasts of the event worldwide. "That was
something I wanted to do for a long time, a major
ambition. I had the good fortune of having the right
people associated with it," he said.

The
Global Flyer is constructed of carbon fiber material,
which makes it light and flexible, but also capable of
carrying the fuel, the engine, the instruments and the
pilot at high altitudes.

The
plane took off from the Salina airport Monday and made
it more than half way around the world before mission
controllers began to worry about the rate of fuel
consumption being registered by on-board fuel gages. On
Wednesday, as he flew near Hawaii, Mr. Fossett decided
to continue on, using abundant tail winds to boost his
speed and save fuel.

When
the plane landed, it had fuel to spare, but the
aircraft's designers say it would not have made it all
the way without the help of the winds. The official time
for the flight was 67 hours, two minutes and 38 seconds.

Although
the flight established a milestone in aviation history,
it is also considered important for having tested some
of the innovations built into the craft and its flight
operations.

The
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, known as
NASA, has expressed interest in using the Global Flyer
to test new communication systems. The company that
built the aircraft, California-based Scaled Composites,
also built the SpaceShipOne craft, which last year won
the X-Prize for carrying a pilot and load briefly out of
earth's atmosphere.

Global Flyer
over the Grand Canyon, Arizona

Global
Flyer presses on despite fuel fears:
11:16
03 March 2005

Despite
a fuel shortage, adventurer Steve Fossett decided on
Wednesday to continue his quest to fly around the
globe, non-stop, in under 80 hours. At 1030 GMT on
Thursday he was nearing the west coast of the US in
the experimental Global Flyer aircraft.

A
loss of about 1180 kilograms of fuel - a full load
being 8200 kg - caused Mission Control to consider
landing the aeroplane in Hawaii after 50 hours in the
air. Fossett started his journey in Salina, Kansas,
US, on Monday and aims to return there in what would
be the first solo non-stop flight around the world.

"I
hit the jet stream very well and that put us in a
better fuel position," Fossett told Mission
Control via satellite phone on Wednesday. "I have
every hope of making it to Salina tomorrow."

But
Fossett has already crushed one world record on this
trip. On Wednesday, he broke the world record for
"distance without landing." A B-52 aircraft
set that record in 1962.

Fuelling
speculation

Mission
Control calculated that if Global Flyer chose not land
in Hawaii, it would have 2610 miles (4200 kilometres)
of ocean to cross before it reached the next possible
landing strip on Catalina Island, off the California
coast.

Officials
began questioning whether Global Flyer would finish
its mission on Wednesday afternoon after discovering
that the plane had much less fuel left than it should
have had. "It is too soon for any confidence that
Steve will make it the whole way around," said
Richard Branson, head of the aircraft's sponsor,
Virgin Atlantic.

Although
the team decided to press ahead with the first half of
the Pacific Ocean - tailwinds of 100 knots had helped
the plane make good time - the decision was not taken
lightly: "Both Steve and I have tackled the
Pacific before on our ballooning attempts," said
Branson, "and we learnt many times never to
underestimate this ocean."

One
of the possible explanations for the loss of fuel is a
fuel leak in the flight's first three-and-a-half
hours. Mission Control shunted fuel from tanks in the
wings to tanks closer to the engine on Wednesday to
ensure maximum availability.